The political image on ‘Twitter’. Uses and strategies of the Spanish political parties
Keywords:
political communication, photography, social media, Twitter, pre-electoral campaign, Spain.Abstract
In the digital context, social media have become powerful platforms for the dissemination of political photography. Specifically, they are set as strategic tools in building the image of political actors and their direct communication with citizens. The aim of this paper is to analyze the management of Twitter by the Spanish political parties during pre-election processes, key in the public positioning of their leaders. In this sense, there has been a content analysis of the profiles of the four main Spanish political parties at state level (PP, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos) and their respective leaders, during the six months prior to the general election (June-November 2015). From an own methodological approach, the results indicate an intensive use of different types of photographs in Twitter, nearly 30 per cent of all messages, where the dissemination of the image of the leader and the use of informative posters has a central importance. Furthermore, it is possible to identify very different strategic trends by parties in the management of digital projection leadership and personal attributes of the candidates.Metrics
References
ARROYO, L. (2012): El poder político en escena. Barcelona: RBA.
BENNETT, W. L. (2005): ‘Beyond Pseudoevents Election News as Reality TV’. American Behavioral Scientist, nº 49 (3), pp. 364-378.
BIMBER, B. (2014): ‘Digital Media in the Obama Campaigns of 2008 and 2012: Adaptation to the Personalized Political Communication Environment’, en Journal of Information Technology & Politics, nº 11 (2), pp. 130–50.
BLUMENTHAL, S. (1980): The Permanent Campaign: Inside the World of Elite Political Operations. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
CANEL, M. J. y SANDERS, K. (2010): ‘Para estudiar la comunicación de los gobiernos. Un análisis del estado de la cuestión’, en Comunicación y sociedad, nº 23 (1), pp. 7-48.
CARPENTER, C. A. (2010): ‘The Obamachine: Technopolitics 2.0’, en Journal of Information Technology & Politics, nº 7 (2-3), pp. 216-225. DOI: 10.1080/19331681003765887.
CASERO, A. y MARZAL, J. (coords.). (2012): Periodismo en televisión Nuevos horizontes, nuevas tendencias. Zamora: Comunicación social.
CASERO-RIPOLLÉS, A.; FEENSTRA, R. y TORMEY, S. (2016): ‘Old and New Media Logics in an Electoral Campaign The Case of Podemos and the Two-Way Street Mediatization of Politics’, en The International Journal of Press/Politics, nº 21 (3), pp. 378-397. DOI: 10.1177/1940161216645340.
CASTELLS, M. (2009): Comunicación y poder. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
CHADWICK, A. (2013): The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. New York: Oxford University Press.
CONAGHAN, C. y DE LA TORRE, C. (2008): ‘The permanent campaign of Rafael Correa: Making Ecuador's plebiscitary presidency’, en The International Journal of Press/Politics, nº 13 (3), pp. 267-284.
DOMKE, D.; GRAHAM, E.; COE, K.; LOCKETT, S. y COOPMAN, T. (2006). ‘Going Public as Political Strategy: The Bush Administration, an Echoing Press, and Passage of the Patriot Act’, en Political Communication, nº 23 (3), pp. 291-312. DOI: 10.1080/10584600600808844.
ENLI, G. y HALLVARD M. (2013): ‘Social Media and Election Campaigns–Key Tendencies and Ways Forward’, en Information, Communication & Society, nº 16 (5), pp. 637–645.
FONTCUBERTA, J. (2010): La cámara de Pandora. La fotografí@ después de la fotografía. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
FRAME, A. y BRACHOTTE, G. (2015): ‘Le tweet stratégique: Use of Twitter as a PR tool by French politicians’, en Public Relations Review, nº 41 (2), pp. 278-287.
GOODNOW, T. (2013): ‘Facing Off A Comparative Analysis of Obama and Romney Facebook Timeline Photographs’, en American Behavioral Scientist, nº 57 (11), pp. 1584-1595.
GÓMEZ, E. (2012): De la cultura Kodak a la imagen en red. Una etnografía sobre la fotografía digital. Barcelona: UOCpress.
GRABE, M. y BUCY, E. (2009): Image bite politics: News and the visual framing elections. New York: Oxford University Press.
HARRIS, L. y RAE, A. (2011): ‘Building a personal brand through social net- working’, en Journal of Business Strategy, nº 32 (5), pp. 14-21.
IGNATIEFF, M. (2013): Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
IZQUIERDO-CASTILLO, J. y LÓPEZ-RABADÁN, P. (2016): ‘Las redes sociales como herramienta informativa de servicio público. La gestión de Twitter en las televisiones públicas españolas en periodo electoral’, en MARZAL, J. et al. (eds.). Los medios de comunicación públicos de proximidad en Europa. RTVV y la crisis de las televisiones públicas. Valencia: Tirant Humanidades, pp. 143-164.
KOLIASTASIS, P. (2016): ‘The Permanent Campaign Strategy of Prime Ministers in Parliamentary Systems: The Case of Greece’, en Journal of Political Marketing (just accepted).
LARRONDO-URETA, A. (2016): ‘Comunicación organizacional ante el reto de la estrategia multiplataforma y 2.0: la experiencia de los partidos políticos en el País Vasco’, en El Profesional de la Información, nº 25 (1), pp. 114-123.
LARSSON, A. O. (2016): ‘Online, all the time? A quantitative assessment of the permanent campaign on Facebook’, en New Media & Society, nº 18 (2), pp. 274-292.
LARSSON, A. O. y MOE, H. (2012): ‘Studying political microblogging: Twitter users in the 2010 Swedish election campaign’, en New Media & Society, nº 14 (5), pp. 729-747.
LÓPEZ-MERI, A. (2016): 'Twitter-retórica para captar votos en campaña electoral. El caso de las elecciones de Cataluña de 2015', en Comunicación y Hombre, nº 12, pp. 97-118.
McKNIGHT, D. (2016): ‘The Rudd Labor government and the limitations of spin’, en Media International Australia. Online First Version of Record - Mar 27, 2016 DOI:10.1177/1329878X16634870.
MARLAND, A. (2012): ‘Political Photography, Journalism, and Framing in the Digital Age: The Management of Visual Media by the Prime Minister of Canada’, en The International Journal of Press/Politics, nº 17 (2), pp. 214-233. DOI: 10.1177/1940161211433838.
MAZZOLENI, G., y SCHUTZ, W. (1999): ‘Mediatization of politics: A challenge for democracy?’, en Political Communication, nº 16 (3), pp. 247-261. DOI:10.1080/105846099198613.
MOYA, M. y HERRERA, S. (2015): ‘Cómo puede contribuir Twitter a una comunicación política más avanzada’, en Árbor, nº 191, p. 774.
NEEDHAM, C. (2005): ‘Brand leaders: Clinton, Blair and the limitations of the permanent campaign’, en Political studies, nº 53 (2), pp. 343-361.
NIMMO, D. (1999): ‘The permanent campaign: marketing as a governing tool’, en NEWMAN, B. I. (ed.). Handbook of political marketing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 73-86.
ORIHUELA, J.L. (2011): 80 claves sobre el futuro del periodismo. Madrid: Anaya Multimedia.
ORNSTEIN, N. J. y MANN, T. E. (2000): The permanent campaign and its future. Washington D. C.: American Enterprise Institute.
PERLOFF, R. (2014): The Dynamics of Political Communication: Media and Politics in a Digital Age. New York: Routledge.
QUEVEDO, R.; PORTALÉS-OLIVA, M. y BERROCAL, S. (2016): ‘El uso de la imagen en Twitter durante la campaña electoral municipal de 2015 en España’, en Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, nº 71, pp. 85-107. DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2016-1085
RITCHIN, F. (2010): After Photography. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
RODRÍGUEZ, D. (2013): Memecracia. Los virales que nos gobiernan. Barcelona: Gestión 2000 (Grupo Planeta).
RUIZ DEL OLMO, F. J. y BUSTOS DÍAZ, J. (2016): ‘Del tweet a la fotografía, la evolución de la comunicación política en Twitter hacia la imagen. El caso del debate del estado de la nación en España (2015)’, en Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, nº 71, pp. 108-123. DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2016-1086
SANTIAGO BARNÉS, J. (2007): El candidato ante los medios: telegenia e imagen política. Madrid: Fragua.
SCHULZ, W. (2014): ‘Mediatization and New Media’, en ESSER, F. y STRÖMBÄCK, J. (eds.). Mediatization of Politics: Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 57–73.
SEGADO-BOJ, F.; DÍAZ-CAMPO, J. y LLOVES-SOBRADO, B. (2016): ‘Objetivos y estrategias de los políticos españoles en Twitter’, en Index Comunicación, nº 6 (1), pp. 77-98.
SKOVSGAARD, M. y VAN DALEN, A. (2013): ‘Dodging the gatekeepers? Social media in the campaign mix during the 2011 Danish elections’, en Information, Communication & Society, nº 16 (5), pp. 737-756.
SOULAGES, F. y SAN GINÉS, P. (ed.) (2012): Fotografía y poder. Granada: Editorial Comares.
SOUZA, P. (2009): The rise of Barak Obama. Chicago: Triumph books
SPARROW, N., y TURNER, J. (2001): ‘The permanent campaign-The integration of market research techniques in developing strategies in a more uncertain political climate’, en European Journal of Marketing, nº 35(9/10), pp. 984-1002.
STROMER-GALLEY, J. (2014): Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age. New York: Oxford University Press.
TOWNER, T., y DULIO, D. (2012): ‘New Media and Political Marketing in the United States: 2012 and Beyond’, en Journal of Political Marketing, nº 11 (1-2), pp. 95-119.
VAN KESSEL, S. y CASTELEIN, R. (2016): ‘Shifting the blame. Populist politicians’ use of Twitter as a tool of opposition’, en Journal of Contemporary European Research, nº 12 (2), pp. 594 - 614.
VERSER, R., y WICKS, R. (2006): ‘Managing voter impressions: the use of images on presidential candidate web sites during 2000 campaign’, en Journal of Communication, nº 56 (1), pp. 178-197. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00009.x.
VERGEER, M., y HERMANS, L. (2013): ‘Campaigning on Twitter: Microblogging and online social networking as campaign tools in the 2010 general elections in the Netherlands’, en Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, nº 18 (4), pp. 399-419.
VIVES-FERRÁNDIZ, L. (2013): ‘Yes, we flickr! Imágenes del poder en la era de la postfotografía’, en MINGUEZ V. (ed.). Las artes y la arquitectura del poder. Castellón de la Plana: Publicaciones de la Universitat Jaume I, pp. 501-516.
ZAMORA, R. y ZURUTUZA, C. (2013): ‘Campaigning on Twitter: “Towards the Personal Style” Campaign to Activate the Political Engagement During the 2011 Spanish General Elections’, en Comunicación y Sociedad, nº 27 (1), pp. 83-106.
ZAMORA R.; LOSADA J. C. y HERNÁNDEZ, F. (2012): ‘La importancia de la inteligencia contextual en la construcción de la imagen del líder político’, en Razón y palabra, nº 81, pp. 43-32.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who submit to this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine's right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoComercial 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine, with no commercial purpose.
Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the magazine (for example, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
It allows and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as a citation more early and most of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
